Granadan reflections

This paper explores a practice of historical reflection grounded in the city of Granada’s aesthetic and architectural heritage. From the publication of Washington Irving’s Tales of Alhambra, in 1823, up through today, Granada has been a highly celebrated destination for travelers and tourists, drawn by the sublimity of its romantic oriental splendor. Yet, although the city is well known for the Orientalist fantasy it puts on display for touristic consumption, here I consider a form of reflection that cannot be encompassed within the protocols of discourse and experience mobilized by the tourist industry, and that indeed, may challenge those protocols and the assumptions about history and geography they entail. Specifically, drawing on the work of the late-nineteenth-century Spanish writer, Angel Ganivet, I trace a tradition of reflection that engages the city’s unique sensory and architectural configuration as the basis from which to reassess Spain’s relation to both Islam and Europe. I conclude with some general observations on the way the sensory and material infrastructure of Moorish Spain mediates and conditions the possibilities of finding a place for Islam in the country today

Historical SDI, thematic maps and analysis of a complex network of medieval towers (13th-15th century) in the moorish strip

The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLII-4, 2018 ISPRS TC IV Mid-term Symposium “3D Spatial Information Science – The Engine of Change”, 1–5 October 2018, Delft, The NetherlandsThis work is part of an investigation into the use of GIS for the documentation and comprehension of medieval architectural heritage in the ancient Kingdom of Seville. The research was done in the framework of the project “Sustainable guardianship of cultural heritage through digital BIM and GIS models: contribution to knowledge and social innovation”, an interdisciplinary project focused on the applications of information technology in architectural heritage in Spain. The study case of this paper is located in the Guadalquivir valley during the period between 13th and 15th centuries. It concerns the Moorish Strip site, fortified by the Christian Kingdom of Castile with the aim of creating a barrier with the Moorish Kingdom. Its deteriorated state has led us to create a historical and spatial database in order to contribute to its conservation management plan. Apart from the historical documentation research and the data gathering, intensive fieldwork was also done to collect information about the buildings. In this paper we present a Historical SDI to investigate the hypothesis that the spatial patterns of the Moorish Band obey rules of “inter-visibility” control. Some analysis has been done on the site scale, such as: i) a thematic map of building material; ii) a spatiotemporal analysis; iii) the density of the distribution of towers over the territory; iv) a simulation of the territory visibility from the towers; v) the inter-visibility among towers; iv) thematic maps using attribute values. These analyses permitted us to highlight the need to create a preservation plan that should consider the network visibility system as an important value for heritage interpretation and knowledge.Spain’s Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness HAR2016–78113-

Social continuity and religious coexistence: the Muslim community of Tudela in Navarre before the expulsion of 1516

This article evaluates the presence of Muslim communities in the Kingdom of Navarre in the late Middle Ages. Following the Christian Reconquest of the Navarrese bank of the Ebro in 1119, a sizeable Muslim community remained in Christian territory until 1516. This article focuses on the fifteenth century, a period for which religious coexistence in the smallest of the Iberian Christian kingdoms is in need of further contextualisation. An analysis of existing scholarship and new archival evidence throws light on the economic activities of the Muslims in Tudela as well as on their relationship with the Navarrese monarchy, their collective identity, their legal systems and their relationships not only with their Christian and Jewish neighbours, but also with other Iberian Muslim communities including those of Al Andalus, or Moorish Iberia

Filming Bronte's Moorish soundscape : an aural analysis of five Wuthering Heights film adaptations

This paper dissects the sound-effects codes of the Wuthering Heights film versions directed by Wyler, Bunuel, Fuest, Yoshida and Kosminsky in order to determine to what extent these film adaptors succeed in echoing thematically the novel's essential 'wuthering'. What such an analysis reveals is that, while Kosminsky 's soundtrack is more consistently analogous to Bronte's moorish soundscape in its recreation of such crucial aural motifs as canine baying, avian trilling and gusty wind, even the soundtracks devised by Wyer, Yoshida, Fuest and Bunuel have their enviable moments of undoubted Brontean significance.peer-reviewe

Ties of resistance and cooperation: Aedemon, Lusius Quietus and the Baquates

Gaius' decision to dissolve the protectorate of Mauretania and to depose its client king, Ptolemaeus, led to the outbreak of the Revolt of Aedemon (AD 40). This paper will develop a number of innovative thoughts and hypotheses concerning the extent of this rebellion and its possible impact on the deposition of Ptolemaeus, as well as the role of the Romans in its suppression. The main aim is to explore the connection between this revolt, Trajanus' famous general Lusius Quietus (cos. AD 117?), and the Baquates, an indigenous Mauretanian tribe. I will suggest that Lusius Quietus was descended from a chief of a (semi-)nomadic tribe who supported the Roman cause during the Revolt of Aedemon. Considering the setting and dimension of this revolt, as well as the unrest in Mauretania at the time of Lusius Quietus' execution by Hadrianus, I argue that this tribe can be identified as the Baquates. This reconstruction suggests a long-lasting and particularly positive relationship between this tribe and Rome. It allows for a further reconsideration of the relationship between (semi-)nomadic and Roman/sedentary groups in Roman North Africa, to the detriment of one-sided analytical schemes that stress endemic hostility

Islamic Influence on Spain: Discussion of Women’s Rights and Islamic Influence

Current sentiment in the West surrounding Islam stems from a variety of factors: terror attacks, lack of understanding the Islamic faith and cultures that practice the religion, and stereotypical depictions in the media of Muslims as terrorist or as oppressed women. Arab societies oppress women via laws, such as the law that prevents women from driving or the law that prevents women from being outside of the house without being accompanied by a man, both in Saudi Arabia. These depictions, especially of Saudi Arabian practices or similar practices from other nations, are generally available to the West, via media, web, literature or radio, rather than of the societies that have had women as Prime Ministers and leading forces in the government, in Indonesia and many others. Islam itself is not oppressive to women, but rather particular practices of Islam are. Spanish history of the Muslims in Spain provides evidence on the how laws were practiced versus what was written down. This continued divide was evident in both Christian and Muslim laws, which allows for the understanding of women’s status within the religion differs than that of which was practiced judiciously in Spain. Spain is a case study for how a Western nation has become more accepting in the presence of Islamic influence that has persisted throughout the centuries. Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism provides support to explain why Islamic culture has been vilified in the West. While Said provides an explanation to the vilification, Fazal Rahim writes of ways to combat the media system that marginalizes Muslims. Rahim writes of a normalized vision of Muslims for the Western media to circulate rather than the banal version of Muslims as terrorists or oppressed. Rahim’s work provides evidence for the needed change that must occur in media outlets of all kinds to see an acceptance of Muslims rather than treating them as the “other.” The lasting effects of Islamic rule and culture on Spanish society, specifically the linguistic influence, as created a society of acceptance rather than denial. Ralph Penny explains the mix of the Arabic and Spanish was a byproduct of the need to communicate with one another, thus creating words that are still used today enforcing the idea of syncretism rather than divide. I conclude with advocating for practical initiatives within communities that can further alleviate tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims, specifically looking at the Butler University’s initiative “Ask A Muslim.

The Muslim conquest of Iberia: medieval Arabic narratives [Book Review]

This article reviews the book 'The Muslim conquest of Iberia: medieval Arabic narratives', by Nicola Clarke

A Newly Discovered Manuscript of the Historia de los Reyes Moros de Granada by Hernando de Baeza

The Historia de los Reyes Moros de Granada, written by the chronicler Hernando de Baeza in the first half of the XVI century, in Spain, is a valuable text that provides a very different perspective from other late medieval Spanish official chronicles. In this article we give an account of the discovery of a previously unknown manuscript of this chronicle which, unlike the two others already known, is complete and includes the ending and the negotiations between the Catholic Kings of Spain and the last Nasrid sultan Boabdil for the Islamic surrender of Granada. We describe this previously unknown manuscript, give an account of the importance of the codex in which it is found, and show the importance of this discovery for Spanish historiography

Moorish Dance

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-me/1154/thumbnail.jp

Secularism and Its Discontents: The Moor’s Last Sigh and Riot

The recurrent theme of dropping frontiers in a world which has become increasingly heterogeneous but intolerant is the leitmotif of Sashi Tharoor’s Riot and Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh. The figure of the Moor and his hybrid genealogy is central to Rushdie’s vision, as he reconstructs a syncretic, tolerant Moorish Spain and juxtaposes it with Bombay, his haven of pluralism. He celebrates Nehru’s vision of a new Indian nation which, in keeping with the traditions of western modernity, promised to be above religion, clan, and narrow parochial considerations. With the vanishing of such ideals and hopes, as boundaries and religious communalism are getting intensified these diasporic cosmopolitan writers make a case for a boundless world. Their response is a human subjectivity which transcends color, class, narrow parochialism, tribalism and fundamentalism. Secularism is the very base of their humane approach. This essay, therefore, analyzes the theme of secularism and its discontents, particularly in the context of the coexistence of Hindus and Muslims in India, as it runs through Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh and Tharoor’s Riot by exploring the various layers of allegories related to pluralism and the critique of fundamentalism in them. Toward this end, it will focus on the recent debates on Indian secularism by scholars to interrogate the relevance of the European model of secularism which argues for the separation of state and religion